Giants vs Seahawks Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 8

The Worksheet, a fantasy football overview by Rich Hribar, breaking down everything you need to know for the Week 8 New York Giants at Seattle Seahawks Sunday afternoon game.

• The Giants are 5-0 straight up as an underdog this season, the best record in the league.
• The Seahawks have scored seven touchdowns in the first quarter this season, the most in the league.
• Seattle has 18 offensive touchdowns (tied for seventh) but has had just three goal-to-go possessions on the season (31st).
• The Seahawks have scored a league-high 11 touchdowns from outside of the red zone. Six teams have fewer than 11 touchdowns on the season.
• The Giants lead the NFL in red zone possessions (14) over the past three weeks after just eight Weeks 1-4, the fewest in the league.
• 41.3% of the drives against Seattle have reached the red zone or scored prior, the fourth-highest rate in the league.
• The Giants are averaging a league-low 4.7 yards per play on first down.
• The Giants are allowing a league-high 7.4 yards per play on first down.
• The Giants (662) and the Seahawks (660) rank second and third in rushing yardage gained on runs of 10 or more yards.
• The Giants (554) and the Seahawks (508) rank 31st and 29th in rushing yardage allowed on runs of 10 or more yards.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Daniel Jones: Jones hit big last week, closing the week as the QB2 in overall scoring (28.8 points). Jones only threw for 6.7 yards per attempt, 202 yards, and one touchdown, but he did his lifting on the ground, rushing for a career-high 107 yards paired with his third rushing touchdown of the year. 

Jones now has 52.3 rushing points this season (third among quarterbacks) to go along with 68.9 passing points (22nd). Jones has thrown one or fewer touchdown passes in 5-of-7 games.

Seattle should be able to help a bit with the latter. The Seahawks are allowing 0.44 passing points per attempt (23rd), surrendering 7.7 yards per pass attempt (28th), and a 4.2% touchdown rate (19th). 

I have a lousy track record getting Jones right when he is in objectively good spots, so apply any grains of salt if you must, but he is on the table as a viable streamer and fringe QB1 option this week.

Geno Smith: Smith has been a bit more human the past couple weeks, closing at the QB18 (12.7 points) and the QB16 (13.1 points). Smith still only has one week finishing lower than QB18, so he still has sustained a higher floor for 2QB formats. 

The Giants have been game so far defensively. They are allowing 0.38 passing points per game (13th), allowing 6.7 yards per pass attempt (ninth), and a 56.8% completion rate (second).

Of course, playing the Giants, you know you are getting some heat. The Giants are blitzing on a league-high 42.8% of dropbacks and playing man coverage on a league-high 49.0% rate of passing plays. This would have been a dream spot to have a man coverage demon like DK Metcalf available, but Smith will be without him this weekend. 

Against the blitz, Smith has completed 71.4% of his passes (third) for 7.1 yards per attempt (13th). Against man coverage, Smith is averaging 10.4 yards per attempt (second) with seven touchdowns (tied for fourth). 

If Metcalf was going to be available, I would bump Smith up higher to fringe QB1 status, but I would be treating him closer to his past two weekly finishes as a viable floor-based QB2. 

Running Back

Saquon Barkley (TRUST): Barkley just continues to find his way there for fantasy, even if it is ugly for a portion of the game. Last week, Barkley had just 18 rushing yards on nine carries at halftime and closed with 24 carries for 110 yards on the ground.

The Giants aren’t going to deviate from the plan here. They are going to give Barkley the ball until he makes a play. Barkley is averaging 24.0 touches per game, second in the league. 

This week, Barkley is against a Seattle defense that has been exploited by all-purpose backs. The Seahawks are allowing 14.7 rushing points per game (25th) and 14.1 receiving points per game (31st) to opposing backfields, giving up 162.6 total yards per game to backs (31st).

Kenneth Walker (TRUST): Walker followed up his strong debut as the feature back in Week 6 with 23 touches for 168 yards and a pair of touchdowns last week against the Chargers.

Walker now has 23 touches in each of the past two weeks, handling 92.0% and 74.2% of the backfield touches. Walker did not have a catch after two catches in Week 6 as the only small slice of complaint, but this is who he is for fantasy, which is a splash-play presence on the ground. He has not achieved Nick Chubb-esque comparison yet, but that is the type of fantasy scorer he is.

Seattle has played well ahead in each of the past two weeks, so that has not become a thorn in negative game scripts.

Walker now is up to 318 yards rushing on carries of 10 or more yards, which trails only Chubb (432) and Barkley (378), who have 59 and 76 more rushing attempts than Walker does on the season. Going back to his career in college, this is exactly who was advertised as.

As home favorites here, Seattle should be able to sustain game script to lean on Walker again. The Giants also have allowed a bunch of huge runs as highlighted in the bullet points. They are allowing 5.74 YPC to opposing running backs (31st). In the past two weeks, they have been gashed for 119 yards on just 10 carries to Kenyan Drake and 114 yards on just 14 carries to Travis Etienne.

Wide Receiver

Tyler Lockett: Playing through a hamstring issue that limited him throughout the week, Lockett caught 7-of-8 targets for 45 yards Sunday against the Chargers. 

Lockett saw his target rate per route go from 22.2% with DK Metcalf on the field Sunday up to 33.3% after Metcalf left the game. With Metcalf sidelined, Lockett received a 35.3% team target share. 

Lockett is not the complete monster that Metcalf has been against man coverage, but Lockett does have a 30% team target share against the blitz, which is 13th among all wide receivers. Against the blitz, Locket also has 41.8% of the team's air yards against the blitz, which sits 12th. Those rates are playing alongside Metcalf, who is expected to miss Sunday at minimum.

Despite the heavy man coverage, the Giants have held their own on the back end. They are allowing a 54.4% catch rate (second) and 6.8 yards per target (third) to opposing wideouts. When looking at the wideouts who have done the best against the Giants, they are players like Lockett, who can strike from the interior as well as the outside. The three top-15 scoring games against the Giants have been from CeeDee Lamb (8-87-1), Randall Cobb (7-99-0), and Christian Kirk (7-96-0). 

Wan’Dale Robinson: Robinson ramped everything up in Week 2, catching 6-of-8 targets for 50 yards. After playing 23% of the snaps in Week 6, Robinson played 69% of the snaps this past week, running a route on 78.4% of the dropbacks after 36.4% in Week 6.

Robinson has been targeted on 36.4% and 24.1% of his routes, immediately establishing himself as a viable target with his increased snap share.

He also plays 71% of his snaps in the slot, which will aid his matchup here. Seattle has been very good against boundary wideouts, ranking fourth in points allowed to wideouts outside. But on the interior, they are 23rd in points allowed, allowing 8.7 yards per target (23rd) and 13.8 yards per catch (29th) with three touchdowns allowed (T-23rd). 

Robinson is a WR3 option, with larger appeal in full-PPR settings.

Marquise Goodwin: Goodwin stepped up in a big way with the Seahawks losing Metcalf last week, catching 4-of-5 targets for 67 yards and a pair of touchdowns, his first scores of the season. 

Goodwin actually caught his first touchdown with Metcalf on the field, but when Metcalf was lost for the game, Goodwin ran 17 pass routes, one fewer than Tyler Lockett. 

D’Wayne Eskridge also ran a route on 65% of the dropbacks after Metcalf’s injury but drew just one target on those routes.

Goodwin is an option to get into WR4/FLEX territory, but playing 90% of his snaps on the outside, he is a volatile option in this matchup. The Giants have been their best defending the perimeter, allowing 7.4 yards per target (eighth) and 15.5 points per game (fifth) to boundary wideouts.

*D.K. Metcalf is now expected to play Sunday. After only logging a limited practice on Friday, his actual involvement is suspect. Metcalf could only be a situational player, decoy, or risk aggravation of his injury. Like Tee Higgins a few weeks ago, Metcalf is an extremely volatile option. Gamers will have to be willing to accept a potential zero-point floor here while Metcalf's ceiling is likely compromised.

Tight End

Seahawks TE: After Noah Fant led this group in targets the past two weeks, Will Dissly saw four targets (4-45-0) to Fant’s three (1-7-0). These two have cannibalized each other all season. Seattle tight ends (including Colby Parkinson) have four TE1 scoring weeks this season, with all four coming paired with a touchdown. 

Both Dissly and Fant are complete touchdown-or-bust options. The Giants are middle of the pack, allowing a 3.5% touchdown rate to tight ends (15th).

Tanner Hudson: Hudson is the next man up with Daniel Bellinger suffering a fractured orbital bone on Sunday. Bellinger was living off of touchdowns (36.5% of his fantasy points) and not volume, so we will need to see Hudson draw targets near the paint if he is going to draw targets at all. Hudson has seen six targets on 102 pass routes this season. 

Seattle has been a target for us against tight ends, allowing a league-high 2.8 fantasy points per target to the position. 

More Week 8 Fantasy breakdowns from The Worksheet:

BAL at TB | DEN at JAX | CAR at ATL | CHI at DAL | ARI at MIN | MIA at DET | NE at NYJ | PIT at PHI | LVR at NO | TEN at HOU | NYG at SEA | SF at LAR | WAS at IND | GB at BUF | CIN at CLE